One-mile clock!

[Bionic-Badger]

At Burning Man this year may be the largest clock in the world, built using lasers to light up the hands. The clock will be over a mile in diameter (or longer considering how far laser light will project).

 

[lasersbee]

Interesting.... can't wait to see what it will look
like when running..


Jerry

 

[rocket689]

Wow. That'll be pretty cool. op:

 

[Helios]

At Burning Man this year may be the largest clock in the world, built using lasers to light up the hands. The clock will be over a mile in diameter (or longer considering how far laser light will project).

Are they pointing down ward? What on earth could they project on to other than the ground thats a mile wide in the desert?

EDIT: didnt notice the link. It is on the ground.

 

[ShortyInCanada]

A "one-mile-clock" running ?
Hell, a clock that big even walking would be a sight to behold.
Running would be frightening !


I always wanted to go to a "Burning Man" event.
Anyone going that will bring back pictures ?

 

[Fenzir]

A "one-mile-clock" running ?
Hell, a clock that big even walking would be a sight to behold.
Running would be frightening !

haha, what?:drunk:

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Are they pointing down ward? What on earth could they project on to other than the ground thats a mile wide in the desert?

EDIT: didnt notice the link. It is on the ground.

Actually I think it'll be pretty tall and shine out over the playa towards the 22ft structures around the circumference, not on the ground. Here are more details.

I'll bring back pictures I take while I'm there (I'm not involved in that project).

 

[Haloid95]

This sounds really cool. Make sure to get lots of cool pictures. I wish i could see it in person.

 

[Humphry]

I wonder if it could be done by buying 3 clock modules and mounting a mirror on each hand respectively. The mirrors would need to be right in the center so as to always be reflecting from a laser pointing downwards. It would even give the 'ticking effect'!

The article talks about 'high speed whaddayya' with remote laptop but I don't see what a few clock modules can't do? But I always take shortcuts so maybe I should shut up


I have Afrikaburn coming up, a smaller cousin of BM. I was wondering about a clock a few years back but always thought the point was to distance yourself from time, schedules, stress and all but hek. Maybe if I have enough time i'll talk to the team and attempt to make something like that.
And obviously post it's life on lpf for you guys :wave:

 

[Ghostchrome]

That's a pretty cool idea.

I've always wanted to check out burning man, but the sun/desert-hot/weirdness factor has kept me away at a safe distance. Maybe someday.

 

[Humphry]

It's another world.
Everyone loves each other.

It is also very hot in the day but not unbearably so.

 

[ShortyInCanada]

The sun/hot/ desert/weirdness factor is the reasons I want to go !
I've done airshows before where you are regulated to sitting in a cordoned off area on the hot tarmac in blistering sun for the hottest part of the day (10 AM - 3 PM) where slathering sunscreen every 20 minutes is required and the temperatures are usually around 40 degrees C or higher meaning that the consumption of water based fluids by the gallon is necessary just to keep up with your own sweating...
I think the moving around & winds in the desert would pale in comparison. Besides, that just gives you reason to visit all the "shelters" and home-made shady spots and meet the people there.
Most "weird" people are just a bunch of thinkers out-side-of-the-box types that might teach you a new way of looking at things you see every day without consideration. Usually they are completely harmless and thoughtful people. Lots of fun to just hang around with.
So I expect a lot of pictures and maybe even some video of the nightlife from you Bionic.

Hmmmm. I wonder if you could make a "Raining-Man" event up here in the Pacific North Wets...

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

The sun/hot/ desert/weirdness factor is the reasons I want to go !
I've done airshows before where you are regulated to sitting in a cordoned off area on the hot tarmac in blistering sun for the hottest part of the day (10 AM - 3 PM) where slathering sunscreen every 20 minutes is required and the temperatures are usually around 40 degrees C or higher meaning that the consumption of water based fluids by the gallon is necessary just to keep up with your own sweating...
I think the moving around & winds in the desert would pale in comparison. Besides, that just gives you reason to visit all the "shelters" and home-made shady spots and meet the people there.
Most "weird" people are just a bunch of thinkers out-side-of-the-box types that might teach you a new way of looking at things you see every day without consideration. Usually they are completely harmless and thoughtful people. Lots of fun to just hang around with.
So I expect a lot of pictures and maybe even some video of the nightlife from you Bionic.

Hmmmm. I wonder if you could make a "Raining-Man" event up here in the Pacific North Wets...

One of my friends sent me this article... I still want to go sometime though:

Bad Acid and Weird Boobs: Why Burning Man Isn't Worth It | Cracked.com

 

[Bionic-Badger]

One of my friends sent me this article... I still want to go sometime though:

Bad Acid and Weird Boobs: Why Burning Man Isn't Worth It | Cracked.com

Wow, that's the third such article I've seen a few weeks spewed out on those kinds of sites. On the two other occasions, they were posted in some lame attempt to cause a negative reaction. My suspicion is that the purpose of many of these "articles" is to just generate extra traffic to the site as they rarely contain much of value other than what they preach to their own audience.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Well, I've returned from BM 2011. It was awesome, and not just because of the lasers.

For the lasers, it was pretty amazing seeing beams of green and blue lasers shining over the sky such that it looked like the parallel beams were projected from two points in the horizon across a circular sky. Usually lasers are not far enough away and powerful enough to create that effect. Capturing a photo of it would have been very hard and I didn't have a wide-enough angled lens to do it.


About One Mile Clock

I was fortunate enough to meet the artists of the One Mile Clock. Jim Bowers and his team joined us for dinner at our camp. I asked them about the laser specs and the construction of the project. The lasers comprised three 1.7W 532nm green lasers each passing through a 10x Leica beam expanders in order to reduce divergence and reduce the beam power at any given point. The beams would terminate at some large hills/mountains on the horizon if they were close enough, and the spot was clearly visible from great distances (> 1 mile). The project had all the necessary variances for lasers of that power and projection use.

According to Bowers, the original plan was to use different color lasers; however, power levels, visibility and optics necessitated a change to an all-green clock hand setup. The red lasers especially would've been extremely expensive for the needed powers for good visibility, and the blues I saw on the playa just weren't all that bright compared to the green, despite having clearly visible beams across the horizon.

For the clock itself, there were green laser hour and minute hands that would turn according to the time. There was also a third fast-motion "hand" that would turn about 5-10 degrees per second. This third hand was made to give the clock greater "motion" as even at such large scales the motion of the minute hand was hard to detect and a real seconds hand would've still had boring motion.

The lasers themselves were projected upwards and reflected outwards using mirrors attached to servos in a sealed chamber. This setup prevented dust from getting into the cooling system. The real magic of the clock was in its auto-alignment and calibration system. It would literally figure out and adjust the servo's required angles needed to keep the beams aligned to the correct time on the fly, sparing the operators the need to manually calibrate the lasers.

Interaction With the Temple

The One Mile Clock also had interaction with this year's beautiful temple. At 12:00 AM (midnight hour), the hour hand would pass through the temple's center tower, striking a glass crystal hovering inside. This would bathe the chamber below in a beautiful green light. As the distance between the laser and the tower was great, this produced no eye exposure hazard.

Overall, the project itself was just one of many incredible art projects and a city of mostly wonderful people. I had a great time and would invite you to see BM yourself, laser enthusiast or not.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Wow... those are some truly amazing pictures.

While I'm no fan of the heat, I think this is something I have to do in 2012.

As for the article... I gave it little credit to begin with, if it was so bad, it would not have become a popular tradition to begin with.

Thanks for posting the pictures and writing about the clock.